This invention relates to electrical wiring boxes and brackets for mounting to supporting structures. More particularly, it is concerned with electrical wiring box and bracket arrangements for mounting to metal studding.
A number of mounting brackets of different design for mounting electrical wiring boxes to supporting structures such as metal studs are well-known to those skilled in the art. By way of example, mounting brackets have been utilized or described in the prior art which variously include features such as clips for securely gripping the edges or flanges of metal studs (for example, U-shaped or C-shaped studs); teeth, prongs or barbs for biting into flange portions or interior portions of metal studs; resilient snap-on gripping members or slotted members arranged for attachment to interior portions, edges or flanges of metal studs; tabs arranged to be bent around edges or flanges of studs and to be secured thereto; spring-loaded members capable of being flexed by hand to permit their insertion into the interior of studs; and members arranged to be secured to studs by fastening devices such as self-tapping metal screws and nut-and-bolt arrangements.
Many of the brackets of the prior art avoid the need for installation tools, even simple and commonplace tools such as pliers and screwdrivers, and some of the brackets are adjustable, or removable by hand once mounted to studs.
While the prior art mounting brackets having the above-described features appear to offer reasonable solutions to the problem of mounting wiring boxes to metal studs, they nonetheless have certain drawbacks and disadvantages when employed in some applications. Many of the brackets, for example, are very complex in design, difficult to install, require close manufacturing tolerances and are difficult to manufacture at low cost, particularly if the brackets have multiple parts or numerous bends or intricate shapes and require special treating such as welding or heat-treating.
Certain of the brackets are usable with studs of only a single depth and many of the brackets cannot be used on either side of a stud or with studs of an I-shaped cross-section. Further, the avoidance of installation tools in several instances is accomplished at the expense of complexity and intricacy of design without significant reduction, if at all, of the labor and cost expended in the installation process.
Moreover, many of the prior art brackets attach to the wiring box at one position only so that when the assembly is mounted to a metal stud, the open face of the wiring box projects forward of the stud by a single, fixed predetermined distance. The result is that the bracket positions the open box face to be flush with only one standard thickness of wallboard attached to the stud in subsequent steps of construction.